标签： Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Prime Minister Godwin Friday of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is holding firm to his administration’s flagship plan to launch a national development bank (NDB), pushing forward despite explicit warnings and opposition from the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF). The proposal, a core campaign promise of Friday’s New Democratic Party (NDP) that won a landslide 14 out of 15 parliamentary seats in the November 2025 general election, is framed by the prime minister as a critical intervention to reverse years of economic stagnation and address the country’s soaring public debt crisis.

Speaking on NBC Radio this Thursday, Friday — who also holds portfolios for finance, legal affairs and justice, economic planning, and private sector development — explained that the NDB is designed to solve long-standing structural barriers that block small and non-traditional businesses from accessing affordable credit. SVG currently carries a public debt load equivalent to 113% of its gross domestic product, and Friday warned that without bold policy changes, that figure could climb to 145% or higher within five years, a trajectory he calls completely unacceptable.

While the prime minister acknowledges that the country’s debt profile is severe and requires careful management, he argues that accelerating inclusive economic growth is the fastest route out of the current crisis. He noted that even in discussions with IMF officials, the fund has agreed that growth is the most effective way to reduce debt burdens over time. The IMF has projected that SVG’s economic growth will moderate to 3.7% in 2025 as post-pandemic tourism and construction rebounds fade, and decelerate further to a medium-term average of 2.7% between 2026 and 2027 amid high global oil prices and a weaker global economic outlook. For Friday, this slow growth forecast makes the NDB a more urgent priority, not a less necessary one.

“This is the way we get out of the difficult situation that we are in, and we have to transform our economy,” Friday said. “We have to unleash the creative and business potential in our economy and make it available to ordinary people to start doing things to grow our economy.”

The IMF’s opposition, outlined by mission chief for SVG Sergei Antoshin in an April 28 statement, centers on three key concerns: risks to debt sustainability from adding a new quasi-fiscal institution to an already heavily indebted economy, the potential for contingent liabilities that could force the government to inject emergency public funds down the line, and the risk of political interference in lending decisions that has plagued regional development banks in the past, leading to high rates of non-performing loans. Antoshin also referenced a history of underperformance among similar institutions across the Caribbean.

Critics have also framed the new NDB as a revival of a failed 1970s-era development bank launched by a previous administration, which was eventually absorbed into the National Commercial Bank after being deemed a stillborn, unsuccessful experiment. Friday rejected these claims, emphasizing that the project is not rooted in ideology or a bid to redeem old failed political initiatives. Instead, he argued that continuing with the status quo of fragmented lending support has not worked, and the NDB is a pragmatic solution to the proven problem of limited credit access.

“Everybody identifies the problem, and we come back to the same thing — is to try to deal with what we have as if that is the perfection that we’re seeking. It doesn’t work. That’s what we have seen,” Friday said. “What we’re saying is what is the best way in which to achieve this, and that is why we are pursuing this objective, because we believe that, properly managed, properly established, that it can meet that need.”

Friday confirmed that his administration will take the IMF’s concerns into account during the institutional design phase to avoid the pitfalls that derailed past projects. He noted that well-governed development banks across the Caribbean have delivered tangible economic benefits, proving that successful operations are not an impossibility. When asked about the risk of political lending — where loans are approved based on party affiliation rather than viable business plans — Friday said the bank’s long-term survival depends on strict, consistently applied lending standards.

“For it to survive, for it to achieve its objective, it has to function on set principles that everybody understands,” he said. “You want to be generous and supportive of small investors and so forth… but the only way you can sustain that is if you’re also rigorous in terms of the standards that are applied to the lending of the money and the ways in which they are monitored and required to pay back. If you’re going to do it on a political basis, then you are not serious about the development of the country.”

Unlike commercial banks, Friday said the NDB’s success will not be measured by profit maximization, but by the growth and performance of its borrowers. Currently, scattered government lending and support schemes for underserved groups operate across multiple separate entities, including the Farmer Support Company and the National Student Loan Company, which serve borrowers that commercial banks routinely reject. Friday framed the NDB as a way to consolidate these fragmented functions, introduce professional management, cut overhead costs, and improve overall efficiency. Beyond lending, the new bank will also provide ongoing business support services to help borrowers succeed, rather than just disbursing funds and leaving borrowers to sink or swim.

On the topic of capitalization, Friday said the government has already identified initial seed funding in the national budget and has received positive feedback from external partners approached for support. The administration has reallocated approximately EC$1.5 million in seed funding to the project, and plans to grow the bank’s capital base over time without relying on expensive high-interest borrowing. Proceeds from the government’s upcoming citizenship by investment programme, which is set to launch soon, will also contribute to the bank’s capital, as these funds come with no interest obligations. The government targets raising at least EC$10 million in capital by the end of the year, a goal Friday calls entirely feasible.

“What we can’t do is borrow money at 5, 6 and 7% and then put in the bank and you have to lend [at] 12%. That is not going to work,” he added.

A brewing political and media controversy in St. Vincent and the Grenadines erupted this week, as opposition leader Ralph Gonsalves launched a sharp public critique of independent news platform iWitness News during his weekly “Morning Comrade” radio segment on the ruling Unity Labour Party’s (ULP) Star Radio on Monday. At the center of the firestorm is a minor clerical mistake at the state-run Agency for Public Information (API) that opposition figures have framed as a targeted bullying campaign against the agency’s acting head, Nadia Slater. The controversy took a shocking turn early Tuesday, when Slater was reportedly assaulted and injured at her home by an alleged relative, with both she and a 70-year-old aunt hospitalized and a suspect taken into police custody.

The sequence of events began on April 28, when API published an official advisory for a government press conference that incorrectly labeled Gonsalves, former ULP prime minister, as the sitting prime minister — five months after the New Democratic Party (NDP)’s Godwin Friday defeated the ULP in general elections and assumed office. Gonsalves has characterized the mistake as an entirely innocent, unintentional slip, noting similar mislabeling has happened to other senior politicians transitioning out of office. He pointed out that current Deputy Prime Minister St. Clair Leacock and Education Minister Phillips Jackson both accidentally referred to him as prime minister on the floor of parliament after he left office, and that decades ago, voters and politicians continued to call Sir James Mitchell prime minister for a period after he stepped down following 16 and a half years in office. The misstep was compounded when API sent a correction that accidentally swapped a key word, describing the mislabeling as a “genuine error with malicious intent” instead of the intended “without malicious intent.”

iWitness News, a news outlet founded in 2006 by Kenton X. Chance, was among the media organizations that covered the typo incident, and later reported that Slater was placed on administrative leave in the wake of what the outlet called a “comedy of errors.” Citing an anonymous source close to the situation, iWitness News questioned why the five-month-old NDP administration had retained Slater in the acting API director role, noting she had openly campaigned for the ULP during the 2025 general election. The source also added that the previous ULP administration itself passed over Slater three times for the permanent director role, appointing external candidates instead even though she was a known ULP supporter.

During his radio address, Gonsalves argued that political opponents and critical media outlets have blown the minor mistake far out of proportion to harass Slater, framing the sustained scrutiny as a targeted bullying campaign. “It’s not something that you should turn into a matter bigger than it is. The politicians are hounding Nadia. I seeing iWitness News wanting to tie her up, tar and feather her,” Gonsalves told listeners, adding that the swapped word in the correction was itself an obvious secondary typo that is being unfairly exploited. “It can’t be an inadvertent error with malice. It’s clear that’s a typographical mistake, but they’re just stringing it up.”

Beyond the controversy surrounding Slater, Gonsalves also directly questioned the professional ethics of iWitness News founder Kenton X. Chance, who was appointed St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ambassador to Taiwan, with his term officially starting March 1. Gonsalves raised concerns that Chance continues to own and operate the news outlet from overseas while serving as a sitting government diplomat, arguing this dual role creates an unacceptable conflict of interest. Though Gonsalves acknowledged Chance’s appointment as one of the better diplomatic picks the current NDP government has made and said he holds no personal ill will toward Chance, he argued that running a politically aligned news outlet while serving as a serving diplomat is improper. Gonsalves, who has been a frequent critic of iWitness News’s coverage long before Chance’s diplomatic appointment, claimed the outlet has evolved into a de facto partisan mouthpiece for the ruling NDP, and derided it with a opposition-coined pejorative “Lie Witness News.” He accused the outlet of publishing unprofessional, heavily biased content that frames news stories as partisan editorials filtered through skewed perspectives, and said it is leading the charge against Slater.

Chance, for his part, has a long public record of commenting on API’s operations dating back to 2010, and in recent years has criticized the agency for shifting toward competing with rather than collaborating with private media, while branding its own content as “superior journalism.” Notably, Gonsalves himself expressed frequent frustration with API’s functioning during his own time as prime minister. Chance and Slater also share personal history, having attended primary school together as classmates in Clare Valley — where Slater’s family is from — before later working alongside each other in media.

Just hours after Gonsalves’s Monday critique, the controversy shifted dramatically with breaking news that Slater had been assaulted at her home around 3 a.m. Tuesday local time. Police confirmed they have taken a suspect, identified as a relative of Slater, into custody. Both Slater and her 70-year-old aunt, who was also involved in the incident, were transported to a local hospital for medical treatment. Details on the severity of their injuries were not immediately available as of Tuesday morning.

At a celebratory presentation ceremony held on the island of Bequia, senior officials from St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and Taiwan marked a decades-long bilateral partnership with the disbursement of EC$320,000 in educational bursaries to 524 local students spanning every academic level.

The need-based and merit-based awards are distributed under the long-running Taiwanese Human Resource Development Programme, a sustained education-focused initiative that dates back to 1998. This year’s cohort of recipients includes students attending primary, secondary, tertiary and technical-vocational institutions across SVG, including learners from outlying islands such as Bequia, Mustique and the Southern Grenadines. Senator Lavern King, Minister of State in SVG’s Ministry of Education, broke down the distribution of awards: 244 primary school students, 190 secondary school students, and 90 tertiary or technical-level learners have been selected for this year’s support. King emphasized that the bursary funds are earmarked to reduce financial barriers for students, covering essential costs ranging from transportation, school meals and uniforms to learning supplies, so that learners can attend classes without financial anxiety. Recipients are chosen either for outstanding academic achievement or for demonstrating remarkable resilience in overcoming personal and economic hardship, with King noting that every selected student has fully earned their award. She added that the SVG government’s commitment to inclusive education shapes the selection process, with targeted support prioritized for students with disabilities and learners from low-income, marginalized backgrounds, in line with the policy goal of leaving no student behind.

speaking at the ceremony, Taiwan’s ambassador to SVG Fiona Huei-Chun Fan outlined the enduring impact of the program, noting that more than 12,500 Vincentian students have benefited from the initiative over its 28-year run. The program aligns with Taiwan’s broader priority of investing in youth development and skills training, she explained, noting that “young people are not only vital to our present but also the bridge to our future.” Beyond the local bursary program, Fan added, Taiwan runs a suite of additional academic opportunities for Vincentian students, including youth employment and skills training schemes as well as full-degree Taiwan Scholarships. To date, 321 SVG students have completed bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees in Taiwan, studying high-demand fields ranging from agriculture and healthcare to culinary arts and technology. Fan encouraged this year’s bursary recipients to pursue future study opportunities in Taiwan, highlighting the island’s global leadership in advanced technology manufacturing to motivate learners. She noted that Taiwan ranks as the world’s 22nd largest economy and sixth in global competitiveness, producing 13% of the world’s laptops and an estimated 90% of global AI servers. Taiwan also manufactures roughly 20% of the individual components found in every iPhone, including the most critical and high-value parts: the processor that powers device performance, the modem for cellular connectivity, Wi-Fi chips, semiconductor components, and the premium camera lenses that serve as the phone’s “eye,” all designed or produced in Taiwan.

SVG Prime Minister Godwin Friday, who also serves as Member of Parliament for the Northern Grenadines constituency that includes Bequia, framed the educational partnership as far more than a formal government-to-government agreement. He emphasized that the program builds people-to-people ties that deepen bilateral cultural connections and outlast changes in political leadership. “It is a partnership between peoples,” he said. “When relations transcend governments and leaders and get down into the people… most importantly through education… that is a cultural deepening and a relationship that transcends just the level of government.”

Friday described investment in education as the most critical offering that the state and society can make to young people, noting that developed knowledge and personal ability, built on natural talent, are the most valuable assets any person can hold. He called on local educators to embrace their role as a vocation, pointing out that teaching shapes lives permanently: negative classroom experiences, thoughtless comments or dismissive treatment can leave lifelong scars on young learners, while supportive, engaged mentorship leaves a lasting positive impact. “What you do stays with them for life,” he said, urging teachers to approach their work with the seriousness and respect it deserves. He also offered guidance to parents, encouraging them to prioritize engaging with their children’s schoolwork, even when busy: if caregivers show disinterest in a child’s work, he noted, that child is likely to lose interest in their own learning.

Friday stressed that the partnership with Taiwan holds particular strategic value for SVG, which lacks large natural resource reserves such as oil, gold and minerals. For SVG, human capital is the nation’s most valuable core resource, he said, and long-term support from Taiwan has been critical to developing that asset. “We don’t have gold and silver, we don’t have oil, we don’t have any of those natural resources,” he said. “But we have the best, the most important one — the intelligence, the good health of our people, the goodwill of friends who would help us, like Taiwan, to achieve what we want to do in education.”

Friday expressed SVG’s deep gratitude for Taiwan’s 28 years of continuous educational commitment, which comes alongside 45 years of formal diplomatic ties between the two sides. He called for the partnership to continue for decades more, noting that the program builds the foundational human capital that SVG’s national development depends on.

Five months after a historic transfer of power in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a administrative misstep at the country’s official public information agency has sparked political controversy and led to the immediate placement of its acting director on administrative leave.

The chain of missteps began on a Tuesday earlier this month, when the Agency for Public Information (API) distributed an unsigned media advisory inviting reporters to a press conference hosted by newly elected Prime Minister Godwin Friday, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP). But in a startling mix-up, the advisory incorrectly labeled longtime former Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves — who had left office five months prior after the NDP’s election win — as the sitting prime minister. Gonsalves, who led the country for 24 and a half years from March 2001 through November 2025, now serves as leader of the opposition Unity Labour Party (ULP).

Within hours, the API issued a second email asking media outlets to discard the original advisory. In that follow-up, acting director Nadia Slater made an unusual public admission that amplified the controversy: she described the mistake as “a genuine error with malicious intent” — a phrasing that immediately sparked widespread backlash. The agency quickly issued a third, formal press release-style correction to walk back the comment, clarifying that the blunder was purely an accidental administrative oversight. “There was NO disrespect, political motive, or malicious intent whatsoever,” the third statement emphasized.

The series of missteps, quickly dubbed a “comedy of errors” by observers, went viral on social media after local outlet iWitness News and other independent media organizations broke the story of the gaffe. As of Monday, the NDP administration has not issued any formal public comment on the incident or subsequent personnel action. However, multiple unnamed government and industry sources confirmed to iWitness News that just days after the incident, Slater was placed on paid administrative leave. One source added that Slater is unlikely to retain her leadership role at API under the current NDP administration, and will likely be reassigned to an equivalent-level position within the broader public service, consistent with civil service protocols.

The incident has reignited questions about the NDP administration’s decision to retain Slater as acting head of the sensitive government communications agency five months after taking power. One anonymous source familiar with internal government discussions told iWitness News that the choice to keep Slater in the role has long puzzled insiders, pointing to her well-documented partisan ties.

“It is not just that she campaigned openly for the Unity Labour Party during the 2025 election. Her actions after the election showed a particular disdain for the new government, even as she was head of the agency responsible for portraying the government in a positive light,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to address the media on the matter.

The source also noted that even the ULP, the party Slater openly supported, never appointed her to the permanent director role, passing her over for promotion at least three times in favor of external hires. Among those external appointees was Sean Rose, a former NDP hopeful who crossed party lines after an unsuccessful 2020 bid for the South Central Windward parliamentary seat, and went on to publicly back the ULP.

“These people include Sean Rose, who began supporting the ULP after his failed bid to become the NDP’s candidate in South Central Windward in the 2020 general election. Nadia was skipped over at least three times under a government that she supported but the NDP government kept her in the sensitive communication post for five months after they won,” the source added.